Friday, March 27 - Sunday, March 29

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 9! The Week 9 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 9 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Also, Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Storybook Week 9 and Week 10. For the Week 9 Storybook assignment this weekend, most of you will be turning in a revision assignment. Then, for Week 10, you will be turning in a new story. Remember that you do not need my comments on your Week 9 revisions before you start writing your new story - so don't let me hold you up! After you finish the Week 9 assignment, please feel free to move straight on to the Week 10 assignment and get to work on your new story. If you can get the Week 10 Storybook assignment turned in by this Monday, you can take a point of Early Bird extra credit for working ahead.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. This has been a really busy week getting caught up from Spring Break, but I am still hoping I will get comments back to everybody by the end of the day on Friday. At the latest, I'll get comments back to you on Saturday if you turn something in by Friday at noon.

Microsoft Updates and Anti-Virus Software. (Repeat announcement.) Some of you may have heard about a very serious virus called Conficker which is spreading like wildfire throughout Microsoft Windows computers. It is extremely important that you update your Windows operating system with the latest security updates at the WindowsUpdate.microsoft.com website. The OU IT department makes anti-virus software available to you FOR FREE, so make sure you have anti-virus software installed on your Windows computer! You have to log on to the IT Store at ITStore.ou.edu, and after you log on, you can click on this Symantec Anti-Virus Software link to download and install the software on your computer for free.

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Thursday, March 26

Today is Thursday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that UNTIL NOON today for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore or World Lit, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. (Indian Epics has no Wednesday assignments, so there is no Thursday morning grace period.)

Storybook Stack. I've still got a quite a few items left in the Storybook stack. You can check to make sure you assignment is in the stack here. I'll do my best to get comments back to everybody by the end of the week; if you want to get comments back before the weekend, please turn your assignment in by Friday at noon. As always, if you want to get comments back sooner than later, turn in your Storybook before Sunday - if you turn something in on Sunday or later, it ends up in an awfully big stack of assignments and it takes me a few days to get through them all.

Microsoft Updates and Anti-Virus Software. Some of you may have heard about a very serious virus called Conficker which is spreading like wildfire throughout Microsoft Windows computers. It is extremely important that you update your Windows operating system with the latest security updates at the WindowsUpdate.microsoft.com website. The OU IT department makes anti-virus software available to you FOR FREE, so make sure you have anti-virus software installed on your Windows computer! You have to log on to the IT Store at ITStore.ou.edu, and after you log on, you can click on this Symantec Anti-Virus Software link to download and install the software on your computer for free.

March 26: Joseph Campbell. Today marks the birthday in the year 1904 of Joseph Campbell, one of the greatest scholars of mythological traditions in the 20th century. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. One of my favorite books by Campbell is The Power of Myth, based on a series of interviews he did with Bill Moyers. If you have never read any of Campbell's books, this one is great one to start with! Campbell is probably most famous for his marvelous motto: Follow your bliss!

Wednesday, March 25

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in before 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Fall 2009 enrollment. (repeat announcement) I know that many of you are graduating this spring (congratulations!), but for those of you who will be in school next year, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of these online classes for Fall, if you are interested. The online courses all fill up very fast, but if you let me know TODAY, Wednesday, March 25, that you would like to take one of these classes in the Fall, I will reserve a space for you. You can get more information about each of the three classes at MythFolklore.net, which links to the websites for each class.

New Ning Themes. As some of you may have noticed, Ning.com has released a large number of new design themes that you can use to customize your Profile page. I've created a NEW Technology Tip for those of you who want to choose a theme for your Profile page - and if you've already chosen a theme, that's great; you can take credit for the Tip now. Here are the instructions for choosing your Ning theme - and even if you already chose a theme, you might want to take a look at some of the new options that were released this weekend.

Tuesday, March 24

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 9 of the class. For those of you who are working ahead, Weeks 10 and 11 are also available! If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. Please check the stack to make sure I received your assignment. Some people turned in assignments over Spring Break, and others turned in assignments over the weekend or on Monday. It will take me a while to work through the stack, so take a look at the contents of the stack now just to make sure I received your assignment. If your name should be there but is not, let me know - a lot of email came in over Spring Break, so please take a minute to help me make sure that the contents of the stack are complete.

Week 9 Internet assignment. The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! This is basically like the Week 8 assignment - two assigned, one free choice, and there needs to be at least one new story at the Storybook which you have not read yet - but here is something NEW. If you want, you can pick your free choice from one of the other classes. So, if you are curious about what the Storybooks are like in the other classes, you can use this assignment to take a look and see if there is a Storybook in one of the other classes that grabs your attention. Since we are using just the one Ning for all three classes, you can leave comments for someone's Storybook even if they are not in the same class with you. So, if you are intrigued, take a look at the Storybook lists for the other classes, and see if something might appeal to you! (You'll have this option each week for the next several weeks - commenting on the Storybooks will continue through Week 12 of the semester.)

Fall 2009 enrollment. (repeat announcement) I know that many of you are graduating this spring (congratulations!), but for those of you who will be in school next year, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of these online classes for Fall, if you are interested. The online courses all fill up very fast, but if you let me know BY THIS WEDNESDAY, March 25, that you would like to take one of these classes in the Fall, I will reserve a space for you. You can get more information about each of the three classes at MythFolklore.net, which links to the websites for each class.

March 24: Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Today marks the birthday in the year 1919 of the American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who is probably most famous as the founder of the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. You can read more about him in this Wikipedia article. The City Lights Bookstore was a regular place of pilgrimage for me back in the 1980s and 1990s and it is still going strong... as is Mr. Ferlingetti, who turns 90 years old this year. Happy birthday, Lawrence Ferlingetti!

(About.com)

Monday, March 23

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you all had a great week off; I certainly did! Today is Monday, which means that Week 8 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due at the end of Week 8. Week 9 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 10 assignments are also available now, too! (Week 11 will be available tomorrow, for those of you who are working two weeks ahead.)

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the Spring Break. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

Grading. With the beginning of Week 9, that means there are a total of seven more weeks of the semester, which means 210 points of regular assignments available, plus extra credit. You may want to start planning now how you want to finish up the class. For a chart that shows you week by week point totals and other information about the grading system, you can consult this Grading Information page. It's fine with me if you want to finish the class with a grade of "B" when you get 360 points or "C" when you get 320 points; for an "A" you need 410 points. So, when you have reached the the points required for the grade you want to take, just let me know. As soon as you get the points you need, you do not need to do any more of the class assignments.

March 23: Akira Kurosawa. March 23 marks the birthday in the year 1910 of the great Japanese film director, Akira Kurosawa. You can read about his long career and many cinematic achievements in this Wikipedia article. Of all of Kurosawa's films, my personal favorite is Dersu Uzala, a story set in Siberia around the year 1900, when Russian mapmakers rely on the skills of a native Nanai tribal member, Dersu Uzala, to survive the harsh Siberian climate. It's a fantastic movie, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1975. Highly recommended!

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